Chinese New Years!!! (Part 4: Leaving Beijing and Entering Shanghai)

Tuesday we took the 5 hour train to Shanghai, banking that it will be a little warmer there. We first stopped at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing before our train left. It was pretty nice, just more temples and Asian styled buildings. They put on a cool show about some emperor while we were there so that was fun to watch Asians dressed up in wigs marching along.

Train ride through the countryside. Actually pretty boring terrain and depressing view of the housing.

So we get to Shanghai in the evening and check in to our first hotel. We found a five star hotel (Swissotel) for one night for about the same price as the Holiday Inn Express. So HOLLAH. It was ballin. We just hung there for the evening and enjoyed making cappuccinos in our espresso machines. So fabulous.

Wednesday we went out to explore. Pretty much Shanghai is all designer shopping and five star insane hotels. Not too much to do. We just wandered, found a sweet Donut King (we thought it would be like Dunkins) but it was a sweet lounge with real coffee. Way more people speak English here than in Beijing, but still not as nice as Hong Kong. And it is at least 10 degrees warmer than Shanghai too. Such a plus.

(This about sums up Shanghai...trying to make Burger King look good)...

(Way too fancy metro stop)

(Liquor bottle as a vase..??)

(Some sort of fancy shopping mall)

(Closest thing I will get to Dunkin Donuts...)

(Not a BCP...)

(This sums up China in one picture)

I spent the evening not feeling well and sleeping in my room.

Which includes all of Thursday as well. Sweet vacation, eh?

Fun Facts about Shanghai Asians:

1. All Asians love bendy straws. And I do too.

2. Most of the Asians in Shanghai are tourists, so I can’t really say too much about them specifically.

3. They are so intent on tourist shopping that one of their old Buddhist temples they added shopping all round the first level of it. Kinda sickening.

We left Friday morning and took a 20 hour train ride to Shenzhen, which is right over the Chinese border from Hong Kong. Didn't get any sleep because the woman next to me an her infant don't understand the concept of personal space, the chairs don't recline and were rock hard, and the guy across from me was eating about 6 lbs of sunflower seeds in the loudest manner possible. To top it off, every asian who answers their phone on the train has to scream into them. So to summarize that trip, I wanted to kill myself. The second I got off the train, I hopped the border and Metro-ed to my dorm. Never thought I would be longing for the comfort of my insanely uncomfortable bed...

Chinese New Years!!! (Part 3: Beijing Once Moreee)

Another bright and early morning. We heard that some park does New Year Day festivities so we head over there early to beat the rush. Coolest New Years I have ever been to. The entire park, which is fairly large, was filled with hundreds vendors selling New Years merch, fair games, food, shows, parades, and even a few rides for kids. It was insane. Glad we got there early because by noon you couldn’t move through the crowds. It seems that the 1/3 of the population that stayed in Beijing instead of going home to their families was in that park. They had multiple stages set up for talent shows, magic shows, musicians playing, and New Years inspired dances etc.

(New Year's Parade!)

(Their dragons remind me more of reindeer than anything...)

(Really helpful sign)

(dancers. Pretty funny.)

The food was the best part. Asians love their ambiguous meat on a stick. Can’t blame them though…it’s good. Just couldn’t bring myself to eat the whole octopi and pigeons on sticks….that’s a little too far. Their fried dough is AMAZING. It’s in little balls at are cooked just enough for a crispy outside but a goopy inside. Served with sugar. YUM. They also sold dumplings, lo mein, soup, steamed sweet corn (another YUM), lots of traditional Asian candy, and “Muslim Food” (no racism on their part or anything…).

(Unidentified meat on sticks)

(Fried dough ball things. YUMMM)

(They are eating pigeons on a stick...asians...)

So it’s about 5 in the evening now and there are still fireworks going off outside my room. Last night at midnight was nothing that I have ever seen in my life with fireworks. The entire city was lit up with the most insane fireworks for hours. By a quarter past 12, there was so much smoke in the air, we couldn’t see further than a block away. You could guess I got some quality sleep last night, eh? We tried going to get some dinner at 10pm and all of the restaurants turned us away so we had to run to a convenience store and get Ramen. Delicious New Years Eve dinner. Unlike New Years at home, everything shuts down here. Midnight is a time to celebrate with families and light off fireworks so nothing is open, we found out a little too late…ohh well.

So we were able to find a place open for New Year’s dinner. It was this fantastic place where we pretty much just bought everything on their menu, including Peking Duck. That was a New Year’s feast if I ever saw one. The staff there loved us Americans and gave us some free dishes. Haha. The best part? It only cost us about $7 each. Back home it would have been about $50 at least. 

Fun Facts about Beijing Asians:

1. They love their meat/octopi on a stick.

2. If you try to say “Happy New Years” to them in Chinese, they just laugh and answer back in English, or look confused and offer you a straw….

3. They honestly LOVE seeing non-asian people.

4. They display really inappropriate things in public where children are.

5. They do workouts in the park with Samari swords.

Chinese New Years!!! (Part 2: Beijing Againnn)

Sunday morning we sleep in, enjoying our insanely comfy beds, then head out to check out the Summer Palace….in the middle of January. Probably the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Pretty much what it is, is some emperor thought that his normal palace was way to hot during summer so he took over an entire lake and built all of these buildings and beautiful gardens and patios and whatnot along it. Thought it was freezing again today, it was so worth walking around outside for hours. The architecture and painting was exquisite throughout all of the buildings. There were crazies out skating on the lake even though some of it was not even frozen over….what. It would have been much nicer to go there in the summer because they had swimming and paddleboats and whatnot but oh well. 

(Cute dragon with a bow at the entrance)

(Dressed up for Chinese New Years)

(Palace had to be miles and miles long. It was huge)

(Palace wrapped all the way around the lake)

(Emperor had his little toy army...cute...)

(sweet kettle)

(Crazies on the ice...)

(Marble Boat)

Heading out, we saw the practicing the dragon dance for tomorrow’s show they have at the Summer Palace (for New Years).

On our way home, we grabbed some curly fries at Mickey Ds (yup, curly fries, be jealous) and stopped at Tian’ Anmen square, which is like the National Mall in DC of Beijing. Impressive. Scary. Where we have the Capitol building, they have a Commy building with Mao Zedongs portrait across the front….

We also got a show walking home because it is new years eve, and everyone is lighting off their own fireworks. This is the only time of year it is allowed to buy and light them off. Each person is allowed 10 kilos of fireworks, which is a fair amount. We are probs just gunna sit in our room tonight, drink beers, and check out all the fireworks that go on all night and through the next day.

Fun Facts about Beijing Asians:

1. Their corndogs are waffles around a hotdog.

2. They love them some fireworks.

(This is just one family's supply of fireworks for the night...)

3. They play a game like hacky-sack but the ball looks like a birdy.

4. They don’t have big grocery stores and department stores. You have to go to smaller more individualized stores or street vendors to get different types of things. Same in Hong Kong and elsewhere in China.